John Somervell Hoyland 1887-1957

John Somervell Hoyland was a Quaker missionary, writer and lecturer. His ancestors had been Quakers since the earliest days of the religion and I have been able to use their wonderfully detailed records to reconstruct the family tree going back to the earliest found, William born 27 October 1685 at Handsworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire, the son of Thomas Hoyland and Ruth.

John's family life was sadly blighted by tragedy.Between 1912 and 1926, he was a missionary in India. Initially he was in Hoshangabad where he married Helen Doncaster in 1913. Their three sons were all born there. Helen died in January 1919 and their youngest son Peter died just two months later. Later that year John moved with his other two sons to Nagpur where he lectured at Hislop College. On 03 June 1919 John was awarded the Kaiser-I-Hind Gold Medal in recognition of assistance he gave in an influenza epidemic in 1918.

In 1921 John married South African born, Jessie Mary Marais, at Makoriya, Bengal, India.When the family came back to England John became a lecturer at Woodbrooke Quaker college in Birmingham.The family suffered a tragic loss in 1934 when John and Helen's son John Doncaster Hoyland died while climbing Mont Blanc, Italy. A medical student at Oxford, he was aged 19 when he was last seen alive with his friend, Paul Wand, on 23 August 1934. Their bodies were found after a month-long search on 22 September.Very sadly John S, would lose his third son, Denys, 10 years later in WW2. Lieutenant Denys Hoyland was 27 years old and serving in the 76 Anti-Tank Regt., Royal Artillery when he was killed in 1944. He is buried at Coriano Ridge War Cemetery, Italy.

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